Ghostgirl and Zomboy
by Shauds02
Summary: "Stephanie I swear to fucking god." Jason growled deep in his throat, his hands tightening on his sniper rifle, his useless sniper rifle. Because he couldn't see the target he'd been preparing all well to send to hell. 'Again.' "You don't make demands of the ghost, asshole, the ghost makes demands of you." He should have known better than to make his big comeback in October.


Jason should have chosen a better time to make his comeback that October. He'd thought it would set a nice atmosphere, the dead returning on Halloween to haunt the living, to seek vengeance on those who've done them wrong. Every little detail, he'd planned out, every detail but one.

This Halloween, the dead had indeed returned to haunt the living, but Jason's… he'd just never considered that he'd be the one getting haunted.

"Stephanie I swear to fucking god." Jason growled deep in his throat, his hands tightening on his sniper rifle, his useless, useless sniper rifle. Because he couldn't see the target he'd been preparing all well to send to hell. Because she'd had to go and hover glowing blue ghost hands and inch away from his eyes. _'Again.'_

"You don't make demands of the ghost, asshole, the ghost makes demands of you." Her voice had an echoing, whispery quality, like a billion of her were speaking in hushed tones from some far off shore – that she should have fucking stayed on – and only the sheer number of voices made them audible from where he stood. Crouched, from where he crouched in the freezing autumn rain trying to take out the drug peddling scumbag across the street. "You're supposed to placate me, where's my placation? This ghost thing is a rip off."

"Then go haunt someone else and let me do my fucking job." He ducked away from the hands, careful not the touch the glowing, blue rest of her that was hovering above him so he could attempt to get a better angle from which to fire on.

Stephanie huffed, offended when the rifle clipped through her incorporeal body anyway. Good, she could be annoyed too.

"Hey t's not like I asked for this and it's not a job, revenge isn't a job, at best it's a hobby, or like, a vice." She folded her arms and spun in a lazy circle to face him. "You should get a job, a real one, like, a checkout clerk or something, come on, let's go job hunting. I've always wanted to haunt one of those fancy waffled houses."

"No." Fuck it, the bastard had gone back inside, now Jason was stuck out here for however long it took his fat ass to leave the building again. He scrubbed a hand over his face.

"This is a crappy way to get his attention y'know." She cocked her head at the building he'd vanished into, all of the windows were boarded up, but Jason had a feeling she could see him anyway. "You could just write a card, dress up as a zombie on the thirty first, that'd make him cry, maybe even give him a heart attack if you wanna hurt him so badly, I can help you pick out a costume."

"Shut up." Jason sighed and pulled his helmet off his head, he retrieved a stick of pumpkin spiced gum from his pocket as he descended the long, winding service stairway that would lead him back to the car, taste of the season the wrapper said. Tasted like crap if you asked him, should have gotten the mango blast instead. "Why the fuck do you care so much."

"Cause I don't wanna be stuck haunting a murderer, I'm traumatized enough thank you." She eyed the gum longingly. "I followed the don't kill anyone rule, right up to the end you know, it's not that hard."

"And look where it got you." He returned his eye to the scope. "You'd taken that shot you'd be scarfing down apple cider with your mom, but where are you now? Oh yeah, fucking _'dead'_ and hanging out with the murderer, so fuck off with your preachy bullshit."

She let out a soft gasp, but was otherwise silent. Jason brushed some rainwater off his rifle and went back to watching. No hand over his face this time, maybe he could get this done sometime tonight and actually get home.

"Asshole." She sobbed and he made the mistake of turning to look up at her, and see wispy blue tears falling from her eyes, dripping of her chin and tuning to vapor before they hit the ground.

"Aw shit." He rolled his eyes heavenwards, silently begging whatever it was that lived up there for the strength to deal with this. Not that it ever listened to him before. He dragged himself to his feet. "Listen…"

She took in a deep breath, though she didn't need to.

"What are you doing?"

No. Please god no.

"I GOT A POCKET, GOT A POCKET FULL OF SUNSHINE, I GOT A…!"… She screamed the lyrics out, deliberately, horrifying off key in her horrible whispery voice. It was like his ears were being assaulted by a colony of bullet ants.

"I'm sorry okay, Jesus!" He tried clamping his hands over his ears, but it didn't help at all, and she didn't stop, didn't need to pause to catch her breath. Fuck it; this was what he got for following the sounds of crying into a burned out cellar in October. "I'll take you to see your friend if you shut up right now!"

"TAKE ME AWAAAAAY, A SECRET PLAAAAACE…"

More than just the building across the street heard Jason's rage fueled screaming.

O

O

O

' _Knock, knock, knock.'_

"Your best friend's ghost is haunting me, and she wanted to say hi." Jason swung his arm at his ghostly nuisance as soon as the door opened.

He'd hoped Batgirl wouldn't believe him when he showed up at, at the door of the Gotham apartment she was staying in until she went back to Bludhaven with Stephanie trialing after him excitedly.

"Steph?" But apparently, the new Batgirl had some kind of mind reading/lie detecting ability and believed it without even questioning him. "Steph!" with a wide, beaming grin, the girl gripped his arm, and yeah, she was really fucking strong, and dragged him inside.

The place was a mess; really, you could tell two teenagers were living in it without adult supervision, by God. He shook his head and tried not to flinch when he saw the edge of a Robin cape peeking out under a pile of dirty laundry.

The little corner kitchen wasn't as bad though, looked clean enough to eat in at least. That was where he ended up playing interpreter for them.

"Assam." Batgirl said proudly as she poured a mug of tea. "Learned to brew it from Brenda." When Jason doesn't take the cup immediately, she nudges it towards him. "MY favorite

"You have to taste it and tell me how it is." Stephanie's whispery voice almost shouts in his ear.

Jason picked up the mug and, with the air of a man turning the key in his own cell, raised it to his lips and took a sip. Not bad, not the best he's ever had, but not bad. "Sweet, a little creamy." He took another small sip. "Kinda earthy and… buttery." Poisoned hopefully.

"Ooh, without sugar and milk? Cool. So, who's Brenda?" Steph said, putting her face close to the mug, trying to smell it and not succeeding.

"She likes the tea, wants to know about Brenda." Jason sipped on the tea again.

"My friend at the café… went to a party, and I had to…" She tugged at the sleeve her shirt, and looking far too happy about it said, "Rip off my clothes, like this." She yanked on the sleeve and tore it of

Oh god. Jason pressed his hands over his eyes and tried to look anywhere else.

O

O

O

Jason doesn't hear ghost wails, or curses as she attempts to move things around. He would be glad for it if it didn't mean she was probably thinking, and that meant she's start talking soon and…

"How long do you think I'm gonna be here?"

There it was.

"Hopefully not very." Jason took a gulp of his cooling coffee then leaned in close to the audio devices he was working on. He pressed the tip of the iron against wire, heard it fizzle and watched the small bit of smoke rise up. Monotonous work, but it was relaxing after a long day of _'failing'_ to get bullets between the ribs of gangsters.

"You're an asshole." She hovered besides him, her knees drawn up to her chest as she watched him work.

"What am I s'pose to tell ya here?" He clipped on a plastic casing and turned in his seat so he could see her better. "M not some expert on this kinda crap."

"Ghost crap or people crap?" She asked, resting her cheeks in her palms.

"Neither." Jason ran his thumb along a piece of wire; he hadn't always been like that. Never very sociable, but it used to be he could still work his way around a room of people without feeling claustrophobic. He tried not to think about it too much, tried not to think about how easily Stephanie communicated with a friend who couldn't even see her.

"Great, only guy who can see me has no social skills." She huffed.

"I have social skills." Jason reached over to gather more supplies to him, wire, receiver, adhesive claws... "Just don't need em." His other skills were a lot more useful anyway.

"Poor baby. Guess I gotta teach you then huh?" She moved so she was hovering over his desk. "First rule of people-ing, don't be an asshole. You wanna watch a movie?"

"I'm busy." He tried to maneuver his hands under her to retrieve the parts for the devices.

"Come on, I can't put turn the T.V on and I'm bored, you've been doing that for hours. There's this great monster movie marathon every year. Zombies and ghosts. We need to cheer them on." She tried to pound her fists into the desk, but they went right through, she toppled over and ended up spinning round in lazy circles.

"Fine." Jason snorted and got up, his back giving several very satisfying pops when he straightened it out.

O

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She tried to cover his eyes while he worked on the bomb, but unlike sniping, this was something he could do literally blindfolded, and the only part of it that bothered him was her voce carrying on and on about why blowing up every meth lab in the East Quarter was a bad idea.

It wasn't a bad idea; it was a very fucking good idea. Someone there was selling meth to twelve year olds, and Jason couldn't find out who exactly it was. He couldn't kill every dealer, but no more meth labs meant, logically, no more meth, no more kids ODing on meth. A simple, quick solution. And if he couldn't get every meth lab, what was left would know how pissed he was and stop giving him reasons to go after them. He'd go after them anyway, but that was beside the point.

No amount of off key singing of 'This is Halloween' was going to make him stop.

O

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O

Stephanie seemed to get stronger the closer they got to the actual date of Halloween. Every day she seemed more corporeal, with focus she could nudge things a little, and... The T'V switched from the news to a star trek marathon for the umpteenth time… she'd learned to do that too.

Jason cast her a smoldering glare and she just shrugged, her eyes wide and innocent as she tried to flop down on the couch. She ended up sinking through it.

"This one's good, you'll like it." She said, just her head poking over the couch.

Jason would have _'liked'_ to watch the news covering for the meth lab he'd reduced to ashes, nothing blew up quite like a meth lab, and he'd been proud of that one.

Jason brought up his remote and changed the channel to an episode of the animated Ghostbusters. Stephanie pouted and changed it back. Jason did the same. Neither of them got to watch what they wanted that night.

O

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O

"Now tell me, how does it feel?" Jason bit the words out, his hands buried in the matted, once green hair of the man that lay bleeding at his feet.

The clown, the piece of filth that had crawled out of the seventh hell's garbage disposal had the nerve to chuckle at him.

Jason gripped the hair tighter and rammed the bastards face into the filthy, crimson spattered concrete floor. He raised the crow bar and brought it against the monster again and again and again. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the Joker's wheezing turned into his own, all those years ago in the warehouse, while his mother watched.

Bones snapped and teeth flew from their places, see the clown smile after this.

Eventually the chuckles became whimpers, forced through the thing's throat as it held its ruined hands close to its chest. It was good enough, for now.

When Jason came back, the thing would be…

"Uhm, I don't wanna interrupt this or anything." Stephanie slid in through the wall, the whispers of her voice echoing even more in the cavernous space of the warehouse. She hadn't wanted to see this, but hadn't even tried to make him stop it.

"What?" Jason bit the word out like venom, not pausing in his wrapping of the clown's feet in thick, prickly ropes that would dig into its skin if it so much as moved.

"That pizza you ordered is gonna get to the door in like half an hour, and Nightmare before Christmas starts like, ten minutes after that." She folded her hands behind her back and cocked her head at him.

"You're lucky day, huh?" Jason tightened the ropes and through the clown into the chest he'd stashed there for the occasion. The joker could wait until after triple cheesy bacon supreme. Three cheeses, three bacons, all on one pizza.

O

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O

"You haven't stocked up on any candy for the trick-or-treaters yet, have you?"

Jason was getting used to her popping randomly out of walls, hearing her voice of legion appear suddenly and without warning. It didn't really bother him anymore, most times. When he was in the fucking shower was _'not'_ most times.

"Fuck." Jason pulled the shower curtain over to him and she backed up, waving her hands at him. "I'm not giving out candy."

"Sorry, sorry." She shook her head and gracefully slid through the door and into the hallway. "They're gonna egg you windows."

"Won't be here for that." Jason resumed washing his hair. "Gonna be a little busy."

"Oh yeah, your _'Batman thing'._ " She tried to growl out the last two words, but her voice just made it sound like something out of the exorcist. Now there was an idea, send her off to the afterlife and away from him. "But what about after?"

"I…" Jason's hands stilled, and water poured over his head, rinsing away the suds as he looked studied the lines on the shower curtain. "I don't know. Have to wait and see."

"Shouldn't we go candy shopping anyway? Just in case?" Her voice filtered through door hesitantly and Jason could imagine her rocking back on her heels. "If we don't hurry, all the good stuff'll be gone."

"Can't, weapon's shipment to crash tonight."

"But what about after?"

"Meh, why the hell not." Worst thing that could happen was he got a hoard of candy to make himself sick on when… if, it was an if, if things went sideways with Bruce.

O

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O

"Spider, spider!" Stephanie screamed at him for the fifth time that day, slowly sliding his blanker off him.

Jason shoved his head under his pillow and tried to get some more sleep, hard when there was a light, but insistent tugging on the pillow too.

"Jason, spideeeer." She put her face close to his and chills ran down his spine, yeah she's learned to do that too now.

"Fucking fine!" Jason swung his legs out of the bed, coming close to clipping her before she swung out of the way, and he stomped after her as she led the way to the arachnid screwing with his sleep, a boot hanging loosely in his grip.

"There!" She pointed and stopped by the bathroom door while he went inside.

"How can a ghost be scared of a… HOLY SHITSTICKS." That wasn't a spider, that was an abomination that had escape from some lab somewhere. Big as Jason's hand and a bright yellow color, almost as fuzzy as a tarantula with dark spots all along its body. It had to be poisonous, and his boot wouldn't cut it. Upon coming to that conclusion, Jason promptly strode out of the door and past Stephanie.

"What are you doing?" She demanded, hands on her hips as he retreated into his bedroom.

Jason grabbed the first handgun he saw, flipping off the safety as he walked back to the bathroom. "Stand back." He cocked the gun, aimed and…

"No!" Stephanie appeared in his way again. "You can't kill it, is that your solution to everything, just killing _'everything'?"_

"What the fuck did you think I was gonna do? That thing could kill me in my sleep." He waved his gun at the creature, now curled up in a corner, playing dead. Jason knew that trick and he wasn't falling for it.

"Then I'll have some company." Stephanie mumbled, turning her eyes skyward.

Jason crossed his arms and fixed her with a blank stare, drumming his fingers against the gun.

"Can't you just shoo him out or something? Look at how scared he is." She moved to hover over the spider as she cooed at it, then it's leg twitched and she flew away from it, going to hide behind Jason again.

"It's female." Jason said. "Why don't _'you'_ shoo it out? You're already dead, what's it gonna do?"

"First, _'how'_ is that something you know? And second…" Stephanie locked eyes with him, leveling him with a look that reminded him of his third grade science teacher, she stuck her hand out and it passed right through the wall next to them. She raised both eyebrows at him.

"Fucking fine." Jason dropped the gun and went to locate his broom.

Ten minutes later – how, in the name of pop tarts, had the broom wound up on the roof of the apartment complex? "Don't you dare try to look innocent now Stephanie," – he was back in the bathroom and trying to coax the eight-legged _'thing'_ out of the corner and into a waiting cereal box. It was dead set – ha, puns – on trying to convince them it had gone to that giant spider web in the sky. No amount of poking was going to have it changing its mind.

Then, just as he was turning to the ghost to explain it to her, that there was a circle of life, sometimes, little crawling things had to die, so that Jason's could live, it sprang up on all of its many legs and, Jason would swear this until his (second) dying day, it locked eyes with him, raised its front legs and accepted his challenge.

"Oh my God it's moving!" Stephanie yelled and pointed at the spider.

Without a moment's hesitation, it sprinted right up the broom Jason was holding, before he had a chance to drop it the thing was on him.

"Fuck!" Jason tried to smack it off his shoulder but it just _'kept moving'_ it's prickly little legs scampering all over his body. He was going to die again, death by spider bite and all because he'd caved in to the demands of dead girl. He was going to haunt _'her'_ this time around.

"Wait I got it, hold on!" Steph slapped at him, her ethereal fingertip just brushing at his skin (a flash of a screaming chainsaw) her hand passed right through the spider and it dropped to the ground.

Jason stepped over the remains and backed up to the bathtub, squinting at it. The spider didn't move, didn't twitch.

"Is it gonna jump up again?" Stephanie was behind him, her hands clenched over her mouth didn't impede her ability to talk.

Jason shot her a hard glance, and slowly approached the bug. It was still, he nudged it with his boot and nothing happened. "Nah, I think ya killed it." He took the risk of picking it up by one, spindly leg, and shook it. Still nothing. He turned to Stephanie and held out the spider for her inspection. "Murderer." He accused, dangling it before her face.

She huffed and left him alone for the rest of the day.

Neither of them saw the spider creep out of the trash bin late that night to situate itself beneath Jason's bed.

O

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"Do you know how to bake pie?" She asked one day as he was oiling his gear on the springy living room couch.

"Why would you think I know how to bake pie?" Jason bit out, sensing another distraction coming his way; he didn't have time for any more distractions, not when he was so, so far behind on everything.

"I just miss it, is all, even if I can't eat it, I can kinda smell things now and…" She shrugged her face crumpling as she drifted down until she was lying on the ground in front of him. "I miss it.

He hated when she got like this, when she was annoying he could tell her to shut up and when she was cheery, she wasn't really bad company, when she was angry, he could get angry right back, but this? It was distracting is what it was.

Jason sighed deeply and pushed his gear aside. "There's a place out in Robbinsville that bakes em fresh, I could do with some lunch right about now."

By the time they got to the place, it was the middle of the lunch rush; it took twenty minutes for them to get a table. Stephanie spent most of that time in the bakery where she could watch the pies rising in the oven. Jason sipped on a coffee and tried to at least look like he was laughing at his phone and not the ghost holding sticking her head in the ovens to sniff the baking pastries. He wasn't sure how well he accomplished that.

O

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O

The grocery store was crowded, there was hardly any candy left on the shelves and apparently everything he'd already bought was off limits until Halloween because _'Think of the children Jason.'_ If she could have, Jason was willing to bet Stephanie would have finished off all of that candy by now, and Jason would still be standing in the crowded grocery store, trying to decide between the gross, cheap, wax tasting cookies, or the ones that was so expensive hardly anyone had touched them.

"The mac and cheese here is shaped like a jack ó lantern." Stephanie's head popped through the boxes of cheap cookies.

"I have food at home." Jason turned the boxes in his hands over and read through the ingredients again as though that would help him make up his mind, it didn't.

"They have these pudding thing's that look like brains, and when you cut it, strawberry jam blood comes out. It's the grossest thing I've ever seen." She was bouncing on the balls of her feet in mid air. "You have to try it."

Might as well do something while he tried to decide on the cookies. "Might as well give in to the zombie." He set both boxes back onto the shelves, and let her lead him through the store. He ended up buying more than just the brain pudding.

O

O

O

Titan's tower was easy to break into, even with Jason's outdated knowledge; it was just too damned easy. If he were feeling either a little more generous, or a little pettier, he would have left little sticky notes at all of his entrance points.

He snuck into Raven's room first; made sure she slept through this. They hadn't known each other very well, he wasn't even sure she'd ever _'liked'_ him, but she'd seen enough crap in her lifetime. Didn't need this too.

It was right after that, right before he would have gone to look at the statues of the fallen Titan's that his plans were horribly derailed.

There was no ghost in his ear, covering his eyes and telling him to stop. It was so quiet, and she'd been _'so'_ pissed when she'd figured out what he was going to San Francisco for. She'd screamed about Tim liking star wars and how he'd fallen off his skateboard this one time, and told Bruce he was all scraped up from a supervillain attack. He hated pineapple on pizza, _'hated'_ called it an abomination. Hey Jason, you like the clash right? Tim _'loves'_ the clash! Just random things right up until they'd reached the city limits and she'd disappeared. Jason fully expected to get home and find all his stuff ruined beyond repair, in all of his safehouses.

The view from their kitchen was nice, city lights and city sounds far enough away to be pretty. There weren't that many stars, but in a big city, that was to be expected. He could hear the water dripping from the tap he hadn't closed properly.

"Who's there?" And there came the little replacement Robin. Jason's and Stephanie's. "If you…"

"Shhh." Jason flopped his hand the kid's way and knocked back another sip of… whatever that was. "You're ruining the ambiance."

"Who are you?" The light flickered on, and ouch, that was bright, but Jason had shades built into his domino mask, so it wasn't that much of a bother once he activated them.

Jason shrugged, readjusted his weight against the counter he was leaning on and took a sip from the fancy square glass he'd found. "No one, apparently." He didn't look away from the skyline, could see the kid's reflection in the shiny glass well enough.

He had his bo staff ready in his hands. Psh, Jason never had anything like that when he was Robin, just his fists and his wits and some really sharp batarangs. Maybe that's why this kid was still alive.

"What do you want?" It was cute, almost, he was trying to look threatening, hadn't called in the rest of his team yet. Jason hadn't seen them since he'd broken in, and he'd been there for a while already.

"Came here to beat the crap outta you." Jason took another sip, savored it as it ran down his throat, t'was sweet, lemony.

"If you don't…" Oooh angry now. Jason didn't get a chance to make a comment on that tone when the kid cut himself off, sounding like he was choking. "Oh my God, Jason?"

"Your ex is haunting me." Jason said turning to look at the kid head on, he found he couldn't dredge up the hatred he'd had before, not with the image of this kid trying and failing miserably to sing some anime song at a karaoke. Shit, she was really smart, huh? "Make her stop."

"You mean… Stephanie?" He held the staff closer to his chest, looking at Jason like he was a dinosaur here to take revenge on the remnants of the asteroid that destroyed its brethren. "Cass said, but…"

"Cass said." Jason rolled his eyes and tried to take another sip, but his glass was empty. Fuck. He tossed the glass into the sink and walked past the stupid new Robin. "I'm going home, beef up your security."

O

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O

"It's the doctor." Jason said, stuffing a mouthful of incredibly salty cinnamon popcorn into his mouth.

"Nuh-uh, that cabbie just screams guilty, look at how he's shifting." She'd made herself comfortable on the other end of the couch, now that she could do so.

Jason shook his head, and said around the popcorn. "No motive."

"Not yet." She folded her arms behind her floating hair. "I know it's him."

Jason hummed, watching the detectives on the screen do their highly inaccurate crime scene investigation. "I'm sticking with doctor."

It was neither the doctor, nor the cabbie.

O

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"Oh, come on!" Jason turned to look at her, but Stephanie turned with him, keeping her hands in front of his eyes. "You're really going to protect that thing from me?!"

"If I let you do this than I literally died for nothing, so yeah." She really was getting stronger the nearer they got to Halloween, she'd torn his RPG right out of his hands and throw it off the rooftop, dismantling it on the way down. Now she wouldn't let him go after it.

He'd woken up that day to his apartment going haywire, appliances whirring, the T.V and radio both on with the volume turned up to max. His lights had been flickering like something out of a fucking horror movie.

The source, he'd found later, through he should have known it from the start, had been Stephanie; tucked inside the sofa and screaming her non-existent lungs out. Screaming because that skull-faced motherfucker had popped up on T.V.

Nothing he's done had been able to sooth her, he thought she was being too loud to hear his voice and he hadn't been able to even try holding her. Couldn't even put a hand on her shoulder, or wipe her tears aside. There were very few times Jason had felt that, that soul crushing hopelessness that made him want to either curl up and die or hit something until it hurt worse. Mom, Gloria, that damned warehouse and now Stephanie.

He fucking _'hated'_ it.

It had still been light when he's set out for Black Mask's penthouse office, and now it was still dark. She'd been fighting him the whole way here.

"I think _'dying'_ gets you out of that fucking rule Stephanie, now get out of my way." He ducked away from her and moved for the edge of the building, to retrieve the RPG that had caught on the fire escape.

"No." Her hair was standing on end, her whole body glowing so brightly it lit up the entire rooftop and her whispered voice sounded stronger and nearer than it ever had before.

Jason could taste ozone on his tongue; if he listened closely, he could hear screams and chains and power tools. It made him sick, physically and his legs grew week against the pressure pushing down on him from all angles. He tasted blood on his tongue. "He's going to die." Jason had to force the words past the tightness in his throat, like there was something squeezing, squeezing. "He, he has to die."

Darkness crept around his vision and he felt himself tilt over.

"Jason!" The voice came from everywhere at once, then suddenly, like a large amount of wind leaving a small room, the pressure lifted, knocking him over with its force.

He gasped for breath, lying flat on his back on the rooftop, waiting for the word to stop swimming in front of him. Fuck.

"Jay, are you okay?" She reached for him, caught her hand right before she could have touched him. "I'm so sorry; I didn't know I could…"

"Peachy." When he sat up, the head rush was so bad he almost went right back to falling over again. The sky was light again. Black Mask wasn't in his office anymore. Jason had missed him, Stephanie didn't care. If she could be that way, then why couldn't Jason…

"Jay, I'm sorry." She said again, her voice even more distorted than usual. "I got scared when I thought you'd, and, and. He's evil but I left him behind before and…"

"It's fine." He fought down the shaking in his hands and, wiped the blood from his mouth as he looked back at the office, if she wanted her murderer alive; it wasn't his place to judge her. "Let's just go home."

O

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"Okay, now two eggs." She chewed her bottom lip as she hovered over the cookbook.

"Two? I thought you said three." Jason huffed and tried to shake off some of the flour that was clinging to his arms.

"Nah, I said two." She slowly rolled upside down. "Musta misheard me."

"How would I mistake two for three?" They sounded nothing alike, he wouldn't have.

"Well I did." She hovered over the bowl he was trying to mix, then back to the book.

"Just let me see." Jason set the mixing spoon aside and tried to peek at the book.

"No!" The book shot towards her, then went _'through'_ her and smashed into the coffee mug sitting on its appropriate coffee table. She had the decency to look a little sheepish under the withering look he directed at her. "Oops." She shrugged, the tapped her chest with her thumb. "But only I may read the sacred texts."

"Can you bring the sacred texts back over here and read it then?" Jason scrubbed a hand over his face, remembering the flour covering them too late and ending up with his face covered in the stuff.

"Now you're the ghost." Steph chuckled and puffed up even more flout to hit him in the face.

"Boo." Jason rolled his eyes and turned to hide his smile. "Maybe we'll pick you up a zombie costume to haunt when we stop by the store after we fail at this."

"We'll just add stuff to make up for the extra egg." Stephanie recalled the sacred texts, and they crashed right through the fourth story kitchen window preceded by the glass they had shattered and succeeded by the screaming of a car alarm. "Oops."

O

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"Hey Jay, why didn't the ghost go to the Halloween party?" She sailed overhead, tossing streamers every which way.

Yeah, sure _'she'_ was excited, she could fly around and move things around, her voice sounded almost normal. The apartment smelled like pumpkins. She'd covered the place in the decorations she was still enthusiastically scattering about. Of course, she was happy, and you know good for her.

"Because the guy she was haunting had an aneurism and died." Jason groaned out.

Jason? He was lying on his couch, an arm thrown over his face, mourning the merest thought of getting this whole fucking thing done with by the end of the night. There goes the speech he'd planned for Bruce. The Joker'd probably starved to death by now, less he got some kinda nourishment outta chowing down on his boney shoulders, so there went that too. (Jason had meant to check on him, really but things had just kept coming up, and he could only pretend so long that the devices he's had monitoring the clown's vitals had malfunctioned)

Even if he kept going, what would have been his endgame at that point? Wasn't like he'd find someone else he can try to make Bruce kill. Now he'd never know. Some of the thugs Jason's had working under him were convinced he's a fucking head case because they'd caught him shouting at people who weren't there the other day. Timo-fucking-thy kept getting the numbers of his burner phones and asking to speak with Stephanie, and then Jason had to text back her replies before she fried his phone trying to do it herself.

A whole month's worth of work and what did he have to show for it? A bowl of fucking candy resting on his chest, and a dozen dealer lieutenants without heads. If Talia saw him now she'd have fed him to the zombie hoards she probably spent her Halloween's resurrecting.

"That candy's s'pose to be for the trick-or-treaters." Her voice hung directly above him. Jason flipped her off. He was eating his candy, and the trick-or-treaters could have what he saw fit to leave them.

As if they'd sensed the impeding end of Jason's candy supply, there was a knock at the door.

Stephanie gasped and flew out to check. "It's a little pirate!" She grinned, her hands balling into fists on either side of her face.

Jason sighed and left the comfort of his uncomfortable couch to answer the door.

"Trick or treat!" Tiny pirate practically bounced on the spot, holding up a bag in demand of candy from Jason's precious bowl. Okay, the kid was pretty cute, all gapped teeth and wide eyes, the eyes patch was hanging around his pudgy little neck.

"Happy Halloween." Try as he might, Jason still couldn't muster much enthusiasm as he gave up a portion of candy and went back inside.

"You happy now?" He asked Stephanie.

"I've always been the candy receiver, and now I get to be the candy giver." She said seriously.

"I'm the candy giver; you're the one forcing me to do it."

"Relax." She waved her hand at him. "This just means we can go candy shopping again tomorrow. Everything's half-off!" He didn't quite get why she was so excited about that when she couldn't eat any of it, but he'd admit her enthusiasm was rubbing off on him.

"Fine." Jason had barely settled back onto the couch when there was another knock at the door.

Three fairy's a cowboy, an astronaut, a dog that was little too old for this, various government workers a, little hoard of quadruplet zombie's later – he gave the zombie's extra, solidarity and all that, and then Stephanie made his give the ghost extra too – the bowl was empty. Jason had to refill it.

He watched with growing horror as the night drew on and his supply of candy whittled slowly away.

"You know, you didn't have to give them that much, they're gonna hit other places too." She said, as he mournfully refilled the bowl for the umpteenth time.

"Shut up Stephanie." He grumbled as the last of the candy bars were dropped out of their box into the bowl of no return. After all the ghosts and zombie's he felt bad, and now he felt like he had to give _'all'_ the kids extra.

She laughed at him, then darted off to check which little monsters were knocking at the door this time.

"What are you?" A miniature firefighter asked, cocking her head at him, clearly unimpressed with his sweatpants/ _'Zombie's ate my brain, what's your excuse?'_ t-shirt combo.

' _I'm a serial killer._ ' Was on the tip of his tongue, but Jason couldn't bring himself to say it as he dropped a couple handfuls of candy into her skull-basket. Instead, he spoke in a deep, raspy voice. "I'm Batman in his off hours."

She giggled, how was it so easy to make kids laugh? See Stephanie, social skills. His smile was a little more genuine when he waved her off.

Eventually, the knocks on his door grew less and less frequent. His candy supplies held fast, and Jason was dozing on his couch, an orange and black candy cane dangling between his lips. Stephanie, not needing rest, was practicing her ghost wailing again, flying off down the hallways to see if she could spot any late trick-or-treaters on their way over.

The next knock came before Stephanie got back, and Jason was hesitant to open the door without her checking if there wasn't, y'know, someone there to kill him on the other side. He sat up, and listened, though he wasn't sure for what. Maybe if he didn't answer, they'd assume he'd fallen asleep, it was eleven thirty, what parent even let their kids out this late?

' _Knock, knock.'_

One who's kid didn't get much candy earlier, or who couldn't afford it the rest of the year maybe.

Jason slowly drew himself up; she couldn't be gone for that much longer, right? She was fast now, maybe she'd just spotted an interesting costume that she was taking her time to examine, and she'd probably be back before he actually opened the door.

Jason inched closer, and there was another insistent _'knock, knock.'_ He was being a fucking idiot, wasn't he? Scared of soccer moms and little kids playing dress up.

Shaking his head at himself, Jason swung open the door, his eyes automatically going down to what had been the eyes level of most of his miniature candy vultures that night. There was no smiling kid, no cheerful _'trick or treat!'_ Just a very detailed utility belt. Too old for trick-or-treating. His gaze went higher slowly, bat symbol, square jaw, cowl…

"Jason."

"Fuck." He shut the door, and pressed his back against it incase Bruce decided to try bashing it down. There were the beginnings of a word coming through the door, Jason dashed for his bedroom. No way was he going to confront a fully armored Bruce in his fucking _'sleepwear'._ Needed a gun at the very least, his body armor if he could squeeze into it fast enough. He'd discarded he idea of Halloween as a good time for a confrontation forever and always. No returns. Period.

"Jay…" Her voice is almost entirely human now, just a light echo on the end.

"You had to be gone the one time it was important, huh?" Jason grabbed an armful of explosives and yanked a duffle bag out from under his bed with his foot. "You see where I stashed the… Stephanie." She was glowing too brightly.

Stephanie was hovering in the doorway, her features strained, limbs shaking, and she was glowing. "Jay I think something's wrong." She tipped forward and Jason's tools scattered along the floor when he rushed to try to catch her. She flung out a hand that sent him skidding back a few feet before he could though, and dropped to the ground, sending up tendrils of ethereal blue smoke. With a whimper, she curled in on herself, her torn spoiler cloak pooling on the ground.

"God, Steph what happened?" There's a hitch in his voice when Jason moved closer, dropped to the ground besides her, his hand hanging frozen above her head. "What…" His voice chokes off and his eyes are burning as badly as his chest.

"Think, think m'done Jay." Her voice is so clear now, even that little echo gone, the vapor tears are indistinguishable from the other wispy tendrils detaching from her.

"But we have to go candy shopping tomorrow." It was so fucking stupid, why was it the only thing he could think to say to her. "Half price."

She chuckled and curled in on herself again, pain etched into her features. "Can't."

Before he could think about it, Jason dropped his hand to her head, braced himself for the horrific visions of her last few hours alive. They were just whispers now, the agony and the fear, he could push them aside, he didn't pull back. She gasped and leaned into his touch, just solid enough that he could run his hand along her hair.

"C'mon, Steph." Jason rested his brown against hers, gently, as gently as he could as his hand continued moving through her hair. Even closed, he could see the blue shining too brightly behind his eyelids. Feel the icy chill of the vapors. "Y' can't cover my eyes 'f you're gone, an who'm I gonna watch crime dramas with, huh. Heaven's boring, I've been there you'll hate it."

"M'sorry." She sobbed and Jason felt something inside him shift painfully, thought his chest was going to seize up. "Thought you d'dn't wan' me here."

"You're an acquired taste." He tried to say past the thing in his throat that was choking him out, tried to smile, tried to pick her up, to hold her closer, but when he pressed to hard, his hand passed through her. All he got were stabs of agony drilling into his mind.

"Don' cry, please." She raised a hand to press against his cheek, freezing the tears it met. When had he started crying?

"M'not crying." Jason said, his fingers wouldn't tangle in her hair, his tears wouldn't stop, but he smiled down at her anyway. "You wanna watch Nightmare before Christmas again? I c'n download it somewhere."

"No, time. Maybe… 'F I… wake up like… like you." She gasped the words out and seemed to seize up, she glowed even more brightly, so brightly he couldn't see her, he couldn't even look at her and… it wasn't fair. "M'scared."

"Don't be, you'll be fine." He couldn't breathe; something was keeping him from breathing. "I'll make sure."

"Kay. Hey, Jay?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't the ghost go to the party?"

"Why?"

"Cause she had… no, she had, had no…"

The light became unbearable, it burned through Jason's eyelids and he brought up his arms to shield himself from it. He let her go. The clock besides the bed turned to twelve. The end of Halloween, the end of October. She was gone.

Somewhere in the apartment, heavy footsteps, that had been stilled until then moved forwards. Jason didn't care. She was gone, she was gone, she was…

O

O

O

 _She was crying, she was always crying because she couldn't get out of the cellar. She'd seen them carrying her out, so why was she still here? Why didn't they come for her again? She was alone, Cass and Tim and Batman, none of them were coming for her, were they?_

 _And it was dark, it was so, so dark._

 _Eventually, how long exactly she had no concept of, people came by. But no one would help her, no one would even talk to her and she stayed alone. No matter how loud she screamed at them, or how hard she pushed, they never saw her._

" _Hello?"_

 _Stephanie didn't pay the voice any mind, she pulled her knees tighter to her chest, pressed her eyes into her knees. The tears didn't stop._

" _Hey?" Footsteps, they got closer to her, kicking up the dust that had settled over her blood. "Creepy fucking cellar in October." He mumbled, craning his head to look around._

 _His eyes moved over the cellar, paused at the chains and the blood, then they passed over Steph, then they settled on Steph. He walked forward; he stopped in front of her and knelt down._

" _Hey." His voice was gentle and he reached a hand for her. "You okay there. 'M gonna help you okay, wanna tell me your name?"_

 _He was talking to her, looking at her. "Steph." She pulled away from the hand, not sure, why it would be so bad for her to let it touch her. "I'm Stephanie."_

O

O

O

He got them to tell him where her grave was. Her real one and not the _'Robin'_ grave that was liable to be disturbed.

He showed up with a shovel, every night, he wouldn't miss even one, didn't give a fuck what they said.

He dug.

The shovel sank easily into earth that never got a chance to harden. Whether the sky was clear, or it drenched him with rain, he dug. He'd said he'd make sure, and he'd make sure. Press shovel into the ground, toss up dirt, repeat, repeat, repeat until it hit against the wood of her coffin with a muted _'thunk'._

Shovel the dirt back into the hole.

Come back the next night and repeat, repeat, repeat.

He'd be here. If she woke up, he'd be here. There was no reason to be scared.

And he'd do it as often as he had to.


End file.
